I keep mentioning the same podcast and part of that is because I do listen to it most days (it’s been going on for 8 years and I only just found it – lots of back episodes to listen to as I choose!) Also, many of its tools and tricks and hacks are serving me as really great writing prompts – and this is where I explore writing prompts. So you get a lot of Gretchen Rubin and her sister Liz Craft up in here – hope you like them as much as I do!
This post is about two of my latest writing prompts. The first is a call to “design your summer.” As the sisters on the podcast say – framing is everything. PLAN your summer sounds like a chore. DESIGN your summer sounds like a fun creative project! The research shows that when you are settled into a routine and do familiar things day to day, time seems to slip by faster. If you engage in new activities, your sense of time stretches and your life doesn’t seem quite so much like it is flying by. As my life has sped up alarmingly in the last few years, I am taking this advice to heart and I have brainstormed a list of adventures to have this summer – more on that below.
Today I got another prompt to list out foods I want to eat this summer. This dovetails nicely with the “design your summer” idea and also a couple other goals I have – (1) to really work at getting the boys able to navigate a kitchen, as part of my internal “launch list“; (2) to continue mixing up new foods and experimenting with the foreign foods I find at the Hong Kong Market across the river for my own pleasure and growth as a cook. My list of summer foods will include some nostalgia/typical items like corn on the cob and Icee Pops and fried chicken salad and grilled burgers on the back porch. But it will also include some new items that explore other cuisine in the most authentic way possible. And the boys are going to help me make it! I can already hear the extensive teen bitching.
DESIGN YOUR SUMMER
Broadly speaking, here is our week-by-week summer plan. As you can see we have an unusually exciting one coming our way . . . but there are also a few weeks for stay-at-home adventures too. Some of this has already happened, of course, but here is the whole 10 1/2 weeks:
Week 1: Memorial Day week in Nashville. It was lovely – low key, puzzles and babies and grilled dinners.
Week 2: Jack and Liam head to Memphis for a mission trip, while Craig, Prof and I hang at home. On Friday, the Prof and Craig fly to IRELAND for a MONTH. The Prof will teach a study abroad course and Craig will just hang in Ireland. As you may recall, in 2017 the Prof took this trip with the two biggest boys. Craig was absolutely furious to be left behind, but as he was only 3 at the time it was the best choice. We promised him he’d have his turn next, and he patiently waited 6 long years before his time finally came (the course rotates among faculty, and this year was the Prof’s turn again!) Here are a few pics from that time six long years ago – I’m struck by how much I have aged, as well as my boys:
More pics to come of a much bigger Craiggy boy going to many of these same sites!
I have run out of time, so I will set forth my list of summer foods and my list of summer adventures in a later post!